Indianapolis: JJ Yeley race report

Late Race Incident Spoils Great Indy Run for Yeley
Contact with 12 Laps to Go Drops Yeley from Potential Top-10 to 34th
Place Finish
Despite a strong sixth-place starting position and a car that ran in the
top-10 most of the day, J.J. Yeley's...

Late Race Incident Spoils Great Indy Run for Yeley
Contact with 12 Laps to Go Drops Yeley from Potential Top-10 to 34th
Place Finish

Despite a strong sixth-place starting position and a car that ran in the
top-10 most of the day, J.J. Yeley's outing in Sunday's Allstate 400 at
the Brickyard NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor
Speedway ended in disappointment with a 34th place result.

Yeley's potential top-10 effort disappeared when an incident with Kasey
Kahne on the last restart of the 160-lap race sent Yeley's No. 18
Imitrex® (sumatriptan succinate) Chevrolet sideways into the wall. Yeley
finished on the lead lap, but with little downforce on the rear of his
now battered race car, it was incredibly loose, with Yeley having to
nurse it to its undeserved finish.

Yeley pitted under the last caution on lap 147 where his crew gave him
four fresh Goodyear Eagles. After restarting 17th, Yeley and the No. 9
car of Kahne entered the short chute of the 2.5-mile oval three-wide,
splitting the No. 32 car of Travis Kvapil. As they entered turn three,
Kahne didn't clear the No. 32 car and turned down into Kvapil, pushing
him right into Yeley's right front, sending Yeley up the track where he
brushed the wall.

While Yeley did a spectacular job of saving the car, the damage was
done. With the right front fender crushed in, Yeley did everything he
could to bring home a very loose race car during the remaining laps.

"It just killed a perfect day," said Yeley. "You run in the top-10,
top-11, all day long and then you have someone get impatient with 12 laps
to go and cost everyone a good day.

"The Imitrex car drove very well all day," he added. "We weren't really
good at the start of the run, but the longer we ran the better the car
was."

Despite the undesired outcome, Yeley still feels his No. 18 team is doing
what it needs to do to finish well with a string of consistent runs
during the past 10 races.

"We were easily a top-seven or top-eight car all day, which has been our
goal the past five to 10 races," said Yeley. "We've been trying to get
consistent and run in the top-10 and get a good handle on things, and
eventually we'll be in the top-five and start to win races. We were
accomplishing most of our goals today, but unfortunately someone's
impatience cost us a really good finish."

With his 34th place result, Yeley held steady at 26th in the Nextel Cup
point standings, 38 markers outside the top-25.

Yeley's Joe Gibbs Racing teammates - Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart - sit
seventh and ninth, respectively, in points. Stewart gained one spot by
finishing eighth in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, while Hamlin also
gained a position via his 10th place effort.

Jimmie Johnson scored his 22nd career Nextel Cup victory and his fourth
of the season by winning the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. Matt Kenseth
finished second, while Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and Mark Martin
secured the rest of the top-five. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch,
Stewart, Carl Edwards and Hamlin comprised the remainder of the top-10.

The next event on the Nextel Cup schedule is the Aug. 13 AMD at The Glen
road course race at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. The race begins
at 1:35 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBC.